The Power of Intentional Eating and How To Love Yourself - Sulaimaan Daniels

Kaizen Blueprint

In today's episode, we explored the differences between plant-based, vegan, and vegetarian diets. It emphasizes the importance of eating whole foods and avoiding processed ingredients. Sulaimaan shares his personal journey of transitioning to a plant-based diet and the challenges he faced in a city with limited healthy food options. He highlights the significance of being intentional and making healthy eating a non-negotiable.

We also touch on the impact of healthy habits on confidence and self-esteem, as well as the importance of self-love and self-compassion. he topic of breakups and the guest's experience with abandonment triggers. We openly discussed personal experience with breakups and the transformative journey of healing and growth that follows. Sulaimaan emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, forgiveness, and self-love in the healing process.

Quotes:

• "Plant-based or whole foods plant-based is really just eating from the foods that are grown."
• "Being vegan, you're not eating any animal foods. However, you can have a diet that's high in processed foods or sugars that can be detrimental."
• "Eating healthy is a source of empowerment and self-love."
• "Breakups are a form of like death in a sense because their relationship dies."
• "I try to just open the door, open the door to the emotion, treat it with kindness, treat it with compassion."
• "Vulnerability is a word that us guys, like men, we don't know what that means."

Books:
How to Eat: A Holistic Guide to Adopting a Plant-Based Lifestyle - Sulaimaan Daniels
Maat Philosophy by Muata Ashby
The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh

Follow Sulaimaan Daniels:
https://www.instagram.com/sulaimaan414/
https://www.instagram.com/hoodhealers_organics/

Follow Me, Aldo Chandra:
https://www.instagram.com/aldoschandra/

https://x.com/aldoschandra

www.kaizenblueprint.com

Transcripts:

Sulaimaan Daniels, welcome to the show. So I want to start off strong. You're a plant -based, but I think many people are probably mistaken or they don't know or they don't have a lot of knowledge. What's the difference between plant -based versus vegan versus vegetarian? So I guess to kind of kick it off, let's say plant -based or whole foods plant -bases, really just eating from the earth. You see the foods that are grown.

Or even if you're having like products and things, whether it could be cereals or snacks, a lot of the ingredients come from the earth. It's not a lot of chemicals, not a lot of additive, not a lot of processed sugars or processed salts or just salts. And so like we're eating straight from the earth. Now with vegan, it could be, I guess you could say, but if it's a product, you're not eating any animal foods. It could be maybe you're eating vegan due to animal rights or to protect the environment, which are all positives. However, we're talking from, I guess, just nutritional level.

Being vegan, you're not eating any animal foods. However, you can have a diet that's high in like processed foods or maybe sugars or wheat or gluten and a lot of things that can be detrimental to the body. And then when it's vegetarian, you're still not eating any meat or fish. However, you do consume, whether it's dairy, eggs, so a little bit of poultry. However, when it comes back to the whole food plant based perspective, you're eating straight from the earth. You're getting a lot of nutrient dense foods, not a lot of chemicals.

not a lot of processed ingredients and that just helps the body flourish a lot better compared to when you're just eating vegan, you can eat a lot of foods packed with chemicals that can be very detrimental. Is it hard because we both live in a city, right? And there's so much processed food. How hard was it that I know you're a plant based, right? So how hard was it to change that diet and kind of tell us how you first started?

I guess it wasn't too hard. When I became plant -based, I was actually in college. I was at Penn State main campus. So when I was out there, they had a lot of foods that were readily available. They were vegan at the time. And so I would just go up to the dining commons, eat the foods. I didn't have to prep too many foods too much. So I would just go there, get my food, go back to my dorm room or eat in the dining commons. And it was pretty simple. Now, when I came home in 2019, that's when it became very challenging. And I was like, you know what? This takes a lot of work, a lot of intention.

A lot of time in the kitchen, a lot of preparation. And it weighed on me a lot. Like I cut out a lot of activities that I would like to do, such as exercising or going to the gym was a big one for me. However, eating was really something that I needed to stick to. And like you said, it's not a lot of accessibility, a lot of corner stores or in Philly, we call them poppy stores, a lot of processed foods, a lot of snacks, a lot of candy. So it's not, we don't really live in, if you're living in the inner cities, we don't really live in an environment that's promoting healthy living.

Like you said, it's a lot of corner stores, a lot of processed foods, a lot of fast foods, McDonald's, which is like group eating. It's horrible. So it was very challenging in the beginning just to be like, all right, well, I got to make this work. How am I going to make it work? And what helped for me was keeping it simple. I'm just going to the stores, getting fresh fruit, fresh, fresh vegetables. I learned a lot of recipes off of YouTube, cooking in the kitchen myself and just experimenting, trying things out. My family didn't really like the food at first. It wasn't the best. However, over the years, definitely got a lot better. So.

I think just being intentional with it and knowing that, all right, I'm going to make this a non -negotiable. That's how it helped me, just making it a non -negotiable. You know what, I want to eat healthy, I want to do the best that I can. And maybe I can't get all organic at first. And then like a year later, started working in a restaurant or a market called Mom's Organics. And being able to work there helped me just be opened up to more accessibility to fresh fruit, fresh vegetables. And then over the course of the last couple of years, we're just working in some plant -based vegan restaurants.

just open the door for just more that I was able to get. Got it again and definitely started from just like making that non -negotiable intention to say, you know what, I'm healthy. And no matter what's the case, I'm going to make it happen. Was there any goals or did you just like wang it or like these are my three to five non -negotiables. These aren't a food that I want to eat every day or these aren't the food that I don't want to eat every day. How strict were you when you first started? I think for me when I first started, so my whole.

I guess when it comes to health was always originated on just fitness. Because when I was younger, at the age of 10, I was overweight and I had to start playing football. I hated it my first year. But as I stuck with it and I started working out, and the biggest inspiration for me to work out was we were doing, it was like the end of our practice one year. I've maybe been about 13 or 14. And as a group, we were doing sit -ups. And I was the only person in the team that couldn't do a sit -up because I never had gym growing up in school.

And my coach came up to me, he was like, sorry, you can't do a sit up. And so that night I went home, I did a hundred sit ups and was like, you know what, I'm going to be able to work out. And having abs became a ...